How to Be a Devils Fan On Long Island -- 2021-22 Edition

Before You Go. In New York and North Jersey, anything is possible as far as the weather goes. Temperatures are expected to be in the 50s all day on Thursday, and rain is predicted for much of the day. You might want to bring an umbrella.

It's the Eastern Time Zone, so you don't have to worry about fiddling with your timepieces.

Tickets. The Islanders have been among the trailers in NHL attendance for years. The new arena will probably help that, until two things happen: The novelty wears off, and the team stops winning. But, for now, tickets may be difficult to get. And they will be a hell of a lot more expensive at UBS Arena than they were at the Barclays Center or the Nassau Coliseum.

In the lower level, the 100 sections, seats between the goals are $236. Behind the goal, they're $115. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they're $150 between the goals, and $76 behind the goal. At the back, in the 300 sections, they're $109between and $95 behind.

Getting There. The UBS Arena is 31 miles from the Prudential Center, and 18 miles from Times Square. If you're driving, keep in mind that you will be driving in New York City, and should expect it to take anywhere from 1 hour and 20 minutes to 2 hours.

How should you drive there? Depends on where you want to cross the City. You could take the New Jersey Turnpike north to the George Washington Bridge, then the Cross Bronx Expressway to the Throgs Neck Bridge, and then the Cross Island Expressway south to the Belmont Park complex.

Or, you could take the Turnpike south to the Goethals Bridge, then take the Staten Island Expressway to the Verrazzzano-Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn, and then the Shore Parkway east, and finally the Cross Island Expressway north to the Belmont Park complex.

Or, you could take the Turnpike north to the Lincoln Tunnel, take 36th Street across Manhattan to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, then the Long Island Expressway, the Cross Island Expressway south to the Belmont Park complex.

Still thinking of driving? I didn't think so. But there is a public transportation option. But it's not as good as it could be. There is a Long Island Rail Road station at Belmont Park, but it only operates on racing days.

So your best move is to get to Penn Station in New York (possibly from the one in Newark), and take the 5:45 PM train on the Long Beach Branch, then transfer at Jamaica at 6:08 to the Hempstead Branch, which will get you to the Elmont Station at 6:26. Then it's a 10-minute walk to the Arena. The fare is $9.25 each way, or $18.50 round-trip.

Once In the "City." Long Island is home to a little under 3 million people, about half of that in each County. The Town of Hempstead has about 760,000, while the "hamlet" of Elmont, the "census-designated place" within Hempstead that includes the Arena, has about 33,000 permanent residents. And, yes, Elmont was, like Belmont Park itself, named for the industrialist August Belmont Jr. (actually, he named them for his father), who also financed the building of New York's Subway.

The ZIP Code for Elmont is 11003, but most ZIP Codes in Nassau County begin with the digits 115 for the West, including for the Coliseum, 11553; and 118 for the East. For Suffolk County, they begin with 117 and 119. The Area Code for Nassau is 516, with 631 split off for Suffolk in 1999.

Aside from the Arena and the Racetrack, there isn't much in Elmont. Essentially, you'll want to get from home to the Arena, see a game, and get out.

Going In. After years of the Nassau Coliseum being inadequate, and being unhappy with the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Islanders explored their options. One was renovating the Coliseum, which has been done, but not on the scale they imagined with the LIghthouse Project -- Capital LI for "Long Island." They considered building a new arena next to the Coliseum, and building one in Queens near an LIRR station. A site adjacent to the Mets' Citi Field was considered.

In late 2017, they finally got a deal for the Belmont Park site outbidding soccer team New York City F.C. for the site. Imagine that: A team owned by the royal family of Dubai lost out to the 3rd-most-popular hockey team in the New York Tri-State Area, over money. 

The official address of the UBS Arena is 2400 Hempstead Turnpike, Elmont, NY 11003. It's 7 miles west down the Hempstead Turnpike, a.k.a. New York State Route 24, from the Nassau Coliseum, on the City Line with Queens, next to the Belmont Park Racetrack. As with their former home with a mailing address of Uniondale, it's part of the Town of Hempstead.

The naming rights were bought by UBS Group AG, the largest private bank in the world, formerly known as United Bank of Switzerland. UBS Arena opened on November 19, 2021, with a concert by the rock band Chicago. No, not an act with Long Island roots, like, say, Billy Joel or Mariah Carey or Public Enemy or even Debbie Gibson. The Islanders played their 1st game there the next day, losing to the Calgary Flames, 5-2. Brad Richardson of the Flames scored the 1st goal, and Brock Nelson got the 1st goal for the Isles.

On the north side of the arena, the Isles feature their retired number banners. All of them are from their Stanley Cup wins: 5, defenseman and Captain Denis Potvin (who, it should be pointed out, did not suck); 9, left wing Clark Gillies; 19, center Bryan Trottier; 22, right wing Mike Bossy; 23, right wing Bob Nystrom; 27, left wing John Tonelli; 31, goaltender Billy Smith; and 91, center Butch Goring. (Goring had worn 19 with the Los Angeles Kings, but switched to 91 upon his arrival in Hempstead, in respect to Trottier.) Gillies, Trottier and Bossy formed "the Trio Grande Line."

The Isles also honor coach Al Arbour and general manager Bill Torrey with banners. Torrey's banner has a bowtie, which he always wore, and the words "The Architect." Arbour, a good defenseman who usually wore Number 3 in his playing days, had been represented by a banner with the number 739 on it, for his coaching wins.

In 2007, when it was noticed that he had coached 1,499 games in the NHL, coach Ted Nolan asked the Isles and the League to allow him to step aside for 1 game, so that Arbour could be a head man for a 1,500th time. It was set up, and the Isles won. A new banner went up with Arbour's name and the number 1500. It made him the oldest man to coach in the NHL, and only Scotty Bowman has coached, or won, more games.
All of these men, except Tonelli, Goring, and Nystrom, scorer of the goal that clinched the 1st Cup in 1980, are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. So is Pat LaFontaine, whose number has not been retired, but he has been elected to the Islanders' Hall of Fame. So have Bob Bourne, Ken Morrow, Patrick Flatley and Kenny Jonsson. Tomas Jonsson, a defenseman from the Cup teams, and no relation to Kenny, has been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. Torrey, Arbour, Morrow and LaFontaine have been awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America. Arbour died in 2015, and Torrey in 2018. All of the honored players are still alive.

Unfortunately, the plaques for the Islanders' Hall of Fame are next to the team's locker room, and are not accessible to the general public.

Morrow played for the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Potvin, Bossy, Trottier and Smith were named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. So were Sweeney Schriner and Nels Stewart of the old New York Americans. Potvin, Trottier, Smith, Bossy and LaFontaine were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017. (Oddly, LaFontaine is not yet in the Hockey Hall of Fame.)

The Islanders and Rangers are one of the nastiest rivalries in the NHL. And one of the closest: Currently the Rangers lead it 152-151, with 19 ties. They've played each other in 8 Playoff series, with the Isles winning 5, although they haven't met in the postseason since the Ranger Cup year of 1994.

Stuff. The Islanders Team Store is on the street level, on the Arena's east side. It is considerably larger than the small one that was on the west side of the Coliseum.

In 2012, to commemorate the team's 40th Anniversary, Greg Prato wrote Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984. In 2005, Peter Botte of the Daily News and Alan Hahn of MSG Network picked up the story from the end of the dynasty with Fish Sticks: The Fall and Rise of the New York Islanders.

To celebrate their 15th Anniversary in 1987, the team released Pride of the Island: The New York Islanders Story, which is available on Amazon.com, but only in VHS form. So is Never Say Die: The Story of the New York Islanders, released in 1996.

In 2009, the NHL released the DVD New York Islanders: 10 Greatest Games, but Amazon says it is currently not available. It includes all 4 Cup clinchers, the 1982 Game 5 comeback against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the overtime Playoff clincher against the Rangers in 1984, the 4-overtime Game 7 "Easter Epic" against the Washington Capitals in 1987, the 1993 overtime winner against the Penguins in 1993, a 2002 Playoff win over the Toronto Maple Leafs that featured a penalty shot by Shawn Bates, and Arbour's 1,500th game in 2007 (also against the Penguins). It doesn't, however, include the Game 7 overtime winner against the Capitals by Pierre Turgeon (and his subsequent clobbering by Dale Hunter), the Islanders' most consequential win of the last 30 years.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Islanders' fans 22nd -- 1 place below the Devils, and well below the Rangers, dead last in the Tri-State Area: "Maybe improved team, move to Brooklyn finally gets people interested in Isles." This prediction proved to be, at the very least, premature.

Islander fans hate the Rangers. They also don't like the Devils -- but their jealousy of our 3 Stanley Cups since 1995 leads them to say we are jealous of them for their 4 Cups, now long ago. Riiiight.

At any rate, they don't especially hate us any more than they hate Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington or Boston. They certainly don't hate us as much as they hate the Rangers. A Ranger fan, wearing a Ranger jersey, took his life into his hands in and around the Nassau Coliseum. That hasn't changed at the Barclays Center. A Devils fan, wearing Scarlet & Black, should be fine, as long as he doesn't provoke Islander fans.

The Islanders used to have mascots. Nyisles (pronounced like Frasier's brother) was "a seafaring islander." He was replaced by Sparky the Dragon, who had already been the mascot for the other team playing at the Coliseum -- no, not the Nets (though the New Jersey version had tried Duncan the Dragon), the Arena Football League's New York Dragons.

The character was retired, and didn't make the trip down the LIRR to Brooklyn. But he was brought back in 2019 for the Coliseum games, and now appears at the UBS Arena.

Amanda Kaletsky is the regular National Anthem singer for the Islanders, and sometimes sings it at Mets games as well. Their goal song is "Crowd Chant" by Joe Satriani. The fans had deep attachment to their cheerleaders/cleanup crew, the Ice Girls, but they were replaced by a coed cleanup crew upon the 2015 move to Brooklyn.

Inevitably, at some people, the Barclays sound system will play "The Chicken Dance," and at the point where most people would do the 4 claps, Islander fans shout, "The Rangers suck!" (Which, as I said, they do.)
After the Game. Getting out of the Nassau Coliseum was difficult. Having just the one concourse, getting out isn't easy. And, if you didn't drive, the distance from the exit to the bus shelter on the Hempstead Turnpike -- especially at night, and especially if it was cold, or wet -- could seem interminable. And the wait for a bus could be just as bad.

At the UBS Arena, it's considerably better, with a shorter walk to Elmont Station, so you don't have to go bus to train to train. Just train to train. And you'll probably be safe. And if there's someone who looks like he's getting a little unruly, just tell him that the Rangers suck. That should turn him around -- or, at least, redirect his anger away from you.

Looking for a good place to have a postgame meal, or just a pint? If you turn east down Hempstead Turnpike, within 4 blocks, you'll find Belmont Deli & Grill. Within 7 blocks, a Wendy's and a Dunkin'. To the west, crossing over the Cross Island Parkway, you'll be in Queens Village, and there's a few Chinese restaurants. However, you're probably better off getting on the train and back to Manhattan before eating.

If you're visiting New York during the European soccer season, as we are now in, there are many places where you can watch your favorite team. The best "football pub" on Long Island, though, is Prost (the German toast, equivalent to "To your health!" or "Na zdrowie!"), at 652 Franklin Avenue in Garden City. You're better off staying in the City, and going to The Football Factory at Legends, at 6 West 33rd Street.

Sidelights. This is where I discuss other sports-related sites in the metropolitan area in question, and then move on to tourist attractions that have no (or little) connection to sports. Since most people reading this will be from the Tri-State Area, I'll keep it short as possible. Indeed, since the focus is on the Long Island team, I'll focus on stuff on Long Island -- but also mention the other current home of the Islanders.

UBS Arena is adjacent to Belmont Park. New York's greatest horse racing track is home to some of the greatest competitions in thoroughbred racing: The Belmont Stakes (the 3rd and final leg of the Triple Crown, the mile-and-a-half "True Test of Champions"), the Jockey Club Gold Cup, the Metropolitan Handicap (a.k.a. the Met Cap), the Manhattan Handicap (a.k.a. the Man Cap), the Champagne Stakes, the Mother Goose Stakes, the Man O' War Stakes, and many others. It has hosted the Breeders' Cup in 1990, 1995, 2001 and 2005.
The Belmont Stakes was previously held in Jerome Park in The Bronx from 1867 to 1890, at Morris Park in the Bronx from 1891 to 1904. Belmont Park opened on May 4, 1905, but the main grandstand was torn down in 1962. From 1963 to 1967, the major Belmont races, including the Belmont Stakes, were run at Aqueduct in nearby Queens. On May 20, 1968, the current grandstand opened, seating 33,000. With infield seating, usually used only for the Belmont Stakes, capacity has reached 120,139, making it the largest sports venue in the Tri-State Area.

Aqueduct Racetrack first opened in 1894, and was rebuilt in time for the 1959 racing season. It annually hosts the Wood Memorial, one of the leading warmup races for thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. It hosted the Breeders' Cup in 1985, and the Belmont Stakes from 1963 to 1967, while Belmont Park was being rebuilt. 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., in Ozone Park, Queens. A Train to Aqueduct Racetrack.

The official address of the Nassau Coliseum is 1255 Hempstead Turnpike, Uniondale, NY 11553. The mailing address is Uniondale, but it's part of the Town of Hempstead. This arena, built in 1972, wasn't the most convenient of sports venues then, but got a major renovation in 2017, dropping seating capacity to 13,197. 

The Nets and expansion Islanders moved into the brand-new Coliseum in 1972, and while it took the Isles a while to find their bearings, the Nets won right away, including the 1974 and 1976 ABA titles with Julius "Dr. J" Erving, Bill Melchionni and Super John Williamson.
In 1976, the Nets were invited to join the NBA. But in order to get in, they had to pay the NBA an expansion fee, and pay the Knicks a territorial indemnification fee. As a result, they had to sell Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets went from being the best team in a 6-team league to being the worst team in a 22-team league. They had to get out, and they did.

Meanwhile, the Isles were building the team that would win 4 straight Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983, and win a record 19 straight postseason series from 1980 to 1984. The Coliseum became known as "Fort Neverlose," and the Isles' battles with the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins became legendary.

But after the 1987 Easter Epic, a 4-overtime Game 7 win over the Washington Capitals, the Isles got old in a hurry. Aside from a 1993 trip to the Conference Finals, they've been just another team at best, and pathetic (and poorly-dressed) at worst.

A failed referendum to build a new arena in 2010 led to speculation that they would move to Kansas City, which has built a new arena, but new ownership cut a deal to move them into the Barclays Center, which they did in 2015. But problems with that arena led them to make the deal for the Belmont Park arena, and to split games at the downsized Coliseum. It is now home to the Long Island Nets, a Brooklyn Nets farm team.


The address of the Barclays Center, perhaps the weirdest-looking building in the entire city, and named for a London-based banking and financial services company, is 620 Atlantic Avenue, at the southern edge of Downtown Brooklyn, intersecting with Flatbush Avenue. It's about 5 miles southeast of Midtown Manhattan, across the street from the LIRR's Atlantic Terminal, and several Subway lines meet there: The 2, 3, 4, 5, B, D, N, Q and R lines.

The best way to get there from Penn Station is to take the 2 or 3; from Port Authority, take the tunnel connecting the 8th and 7th Avenue lines and take the 2, 3, N or Q; from Grand Central, take the 4 or 5.

But its seating capacity is too low (15,795 for hockey, as opposed to 17,732 for basketball), the seats aren't properly aligned for hockey (behind-the-basket seats had to be removed at one end), and the scoreboard, while on-center for basketball, is off-center for hockey. Groundsharing can be fun. In this case, it wasn't.* Hofstra University. The campus of Long Island's best-known institution of higher learning has its campus to the south of the Coliseum, across the Hempstead Turnpike; and to the west of it, across Earl Ovington Blvd.. To the west is Weeb Ewbank Hall, the former offices and practice facility of the New York Jets.

To the south is most of the school's athletic facilities, James M. Shuart Stadium. Hofstra -- originally the Flying Dutchmen, and now, in a weird nod to political correctness (I don't recall any Dutch-American groups getting upset at the name), the Pride -- no longer plays football. But they do play other sports there, and the new version of the New York Cosmos, as the original version did for a time in the early 1970s, plays their home games there while they look for a stadium closer to The City.

Hofstra's theater, the Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center, hosted the 2nd Presidential Debate of 2008, between Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona; and the 3rd Debate of 2012, between President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. 779 Hempstead Turnpike, at California Avenue, 2 blocks west of Shuart Stadium and 9 blocks west of the Coliseum.

According to an article in the October 3, 2014 edition of The New York Times, the most popular college football teams on Long Island are Syracuse and Notre Dame -- Syracuse in Nassau County, Notre Dame in Suffolk County.

* Long Island Arena. Also known as the Commack Arena, this 4,000-seat barn opened in 1956, and from 1959 until 1973 -- forced into irrelevancy and dissolution by the arrival of the Islanders -- it was home to the Long Island Ducks of the Eastern Hockey League. (There is now an independent minor-league baseball team with that name playing in Central Islip, Suffolk County.)

The ABA team in the New York market arrived, after spending the 1st season of 1967-68 as the New Jersey Americans at the Teaneck Armory, and, to rhyme with the Mets and the Jets, changed their name to the New York Nets -- admittedly, a dumb name with a dumb reason. They were terrible in that 1968-69 season, and found the floor unacceptable, full of pits and gouges, and with condensation from the ice beneath coming up, making it slick. After 1 season, the Nets moved again, for reasons that had little to do with poor attendance or performance.

John F. Kennedy made campaign stops at both the Teaneck Armory and the Long Island Arena on November 6, 1960, 2 days before he was elected President. Part of Peter Frampton's album Frampton Comes Alive! was recorded there. It housed an indoor flea market before being closed and demolished in 1996. A shopping center is now on the site. 88 Veterans Memorial Highway at Sunken Meadow Parkway. Not really reachable by public transportation.

* Island Garden. Built across the street from the original Island Garden, which hosted rock concerts from 1957 to 1968, the Nets managed to stay here for 3 seasons, from 1969 to 1972, including Rick Barry's ABA scoring leader season in 1971 and their 1st Division title in 1972.

The opening of the Nassau Coliseum made the Island Garden's 8,500 seats obsolete. (Yes, kids, the "Mausoleum" made another arena obsolete.) It was partly demolished in 1973, and, as with the Long Island/Commack Arena, a shopping center is on the site today. But so is a part of the original arena, and youth basketball is still played there. 45 Cherry Valley Avenue at Terminal Road, West Hempstead. LIRR Hempstead Branch to Queens Village, then transfer to MTA N6 bus.

* Bethpage Ballpark. This 6,002-seat stadium, about 45 miles east of Midtown Manhattan and 20 miles east of the Nassau Coliseum, opened in 2000, and had 4 different names in just 10 years (now 15 seasons of play). Bethpage Federal Credit Union bought the naming rights in 2010, so it has the name of that Suffolk County town, even though it's not in that town.

The Ballpark is home to the Long Island Ducks, named for the old minor-league hockey team, which was named for the many duck farms in Suffolk County. The Ducks have won the Atlantic League Pennant in 2004, 2012 and 2013, and have usually led the League in attendance. Former Met shortstop Bud Harrelson is a part-owner, was their first manager, and is now the 3rd base coach (as he was for the last Met title in 1986), and Gary Carter managed them to a Playoff berth in 2010.

3 Court House Drive, Central Islip. Not really reachable by public transportation: The closest LIRR station is in Central Islip, over 2 miles away.

Lots of movies have been shot on Long Island, including Citizen Kane (Oheka Castle in Huntington stood in for Kane's Xanadu), The Godfather (James Caan's Sonny Corleone was whacked at a toll booth temporarily erected at Mitchel Field in Uniondale), The Amityville Horror, The World According to Garp (Fisher's Island stood in for coastal Maine), Trading Places (Mill Neck Manor was the home of the villainous Duke brothers), Married to the Mob (shot all over the Island, if you'll pardon my choice of words), Born On the Fourth of July (based on the memoir of Massapequa native Ron Kovic), and John Wick (Republic Airport in Farmingdale was used).

In Old Westbury, the Phipps Estate stood in for both the mansion of the villain played by James Mason in North By Northwest and the home of the hero played by Ryan O'Neal in Love Story. Also in Old Westbury, the Knole Estate stood in for the home of the titular characters in Arthur and The Devil's Advocate.

The most famous work of popular culture set on Long Island, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. East Egg is Great Neck, Nassau County; West Egg is Little Neck, Queens; and the "valley of ashes," halfway between Midtown Manhattan and East Egg is Flushing Meadow, roughly where the Mets eventually moved. It's been made into a movie 5 times, but on none of those occasions was it filmed on Long Island: The 1926 and 1949 versions filmed in Southern California; the 1974 version in Newport, Rhode Island; the 2000 version in Montreal; and the 2013 version in Australia, homeland of its director, Baz Lurhmann.

TV shows set on Long Island have included Silver Spoons, Growing Pains and Everybody Loves Raymond. The Gellers and the Greens of Friends were said to be from Long Island, and there were hints (but never proof) that The Wonder Years was set there.

And Long Island has its beaches: Jones Beach, Fire Island, the Hamptons.

*

Getting out of the Nassau Coliseum, as it then was, was a good thing for the Islanders. And, physically/geologically, if not culturally, Brooklyn is still on Long Island. So the identity still works.

Now, they are back on Long Island, at least part-time. Soon, it will be full-time again.